Daily archives: December 15, 2002


Bookshelf

Just started- King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard

Just finished- Brightness Reef, David Brin This is a well written piece of sci fi, with interesting aliens and a strange but logically ordered culture and neat shifts in emphasis to show which story thread you’re in. But I have some pretty major problems with it. For one thing, it’s part one of a trilogy. I’m not one of life’s trilogy readers , and by half way through the book, it wasobvious that everyone was settling in for the long run.

The other big problem is the whole premise of ‘Uplift’, the phenomenon that links all the races in the book. Uplift is the process whereby super intelligent, glory motivated aliens take a race on the verge of sentience and nudge it along until it can form societies and reach for the stars. They have to do this, you see, because evolution alone cannot possibly result in such intelligence. This looks to me like nothing more than dressed up Intelligent Design, itself a dubious attempt to wrap Creationism up in pseudoscience so that it can be taught in schools.


Not the mouthful Christmas Stuffing the Italians wanted

Lewinsky banned from Italian TV show

ROME (Reuters) – Italian television usually loves sex and scandal, but putting Monica Lewinsky on daytime TV close to Christmas was apparently too much for some. So it was that the former White House intern, who hit the headlines in 1998 over her affair with former President Bill Clinton, came to Italy all dressed up for a TV party — with no place to go. Lewinsky was to have been the star guest on “Domenica In” (Sunday In), a talk show that goes on for about five hours and offers a mix of dancing, sport and interviews with everyone from priests to pop stars. But some politicians were outraged that state broadcaster RAI, which is funded by public money, planned to pay Lewinsky’s expenses using taxpayers’ money for an interview on a Sunday. Rome’s leading newspaper, La Repubblica, dedicated two pages to the debate. Milan’s Corriere della Sera ran four articles. RAI president Antonio Baldassarre expressed concern and network executives yanked Lewinsky off the show late on Saturday. The move was applauded by Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri.


Proceed with caution

Yes indeed. Do not get extremely drunk and then attempt to blog. What was i thinking. The shopping here in Edinburgh is insane! I have not seen such activity since my mom and dad used to take us into New York City! Truly amazing. Saw James Bond movie last night for the second time, and I must admit the whole thing wasn’t very impressive. Also, I couldn’t figure out why everyone thinks Halle Berry is the business. She really is just another good looking skinny girl with ample flesh in the right places!